Updates

Play Release 140!

July 27, 2025

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 140 goes live July 28th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 140 (R140), we offer fun in the sun and in the dungeon.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Lava Month

From the depths an ancient horror is coming, where the blood of the planet itself rises to swallow everything in its path… or it’s just a really warm place to fish, who knows?

Did you know that New Britannia has been around for a very long time? This world has been known by other names in the distant mists of time, some of which are not to be spoken lest the wrath of figures still powerful may appear and wreak havoc.

There is evidence that long ago, before the moons collided and even prior to Lord British, there was a civilization that thrived and met some cataclysm even more devastating than the Shardfall events over seven hundred years ago. Just look at the mysterious lava rooms recently uncovered: some of them appear to have been used to farm the prehistoric lava fish that have become such popular prey as of late. There are rooms that may have been used to generate power beyond even what the kobolds can imagine, and others still that are undisturbed natural caverns. It’s the semi-natural ones that have the masters of every skill school arguing. Most appear to have been broken into and modified with enormous ancient pieces of volcanic stone to make what appears to be places of meditation, study, possibly even ritual spaces for sacrifices, or maybe they just used them for sunless tanning. We may never know, though there have been some respected folks who swear they have seen things. Things they will not describe.

…but we don’t believe in things like that, right?

In honor of the hot winds of August, we will be rolling out a bunch of new lava rooms throughout release 140. Coming in the middle of the month we have an enormous lava room based on the Mine Cart Foyer. This room is HUGE: more square meters than Blackblade Pass. A room this large is bound to attract attention; I understand that there have been reports of Fire Elementals appearing in the new rooms and some say they have even been sighted in some of the older ones too!

There’s a little more work to do on the rooms so they are even better than the Lava Fishing Grotto we made a few months ago: the pictures here are of work in progress.

Be on the lookout!

– Ravalox

Bug Brigade’s 5th Anniversary Party

Please join us for a party celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Bug Brigade, hosted by the Bug Moderators Ravalox, Alley Oop, Echondas, Flair Minamoto, and Justyn! The party will start Saturday August 16th at 2PM NBT on the Bug Brigade’s Houseboat at its location in Brekken Bay off Hunters’ Island, indicated in the image on the right. We will have a live DJ spinning tunes while the party-goers dance, play party games, and more! You never know what might happen!

Release 140 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 140 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R141 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 140!

Play Release 139!

June 29, 2025

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 139 goes live June 30th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 139 (R139), we offer the essence of fire.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Principles and Chaos

It’s that time of year again! Lord British’s birthday is upon us and with it comes reflection on the timeless Principles that shape our world. To celebrate, we’re thrilled to unveil the latest entry in our Ultra Rare series, this time themed around the powerful forces of the Principles and Chaos!

From June 30th through July 11th, when you purchase and claim a qualifying COTO pack in-game, you’ll receive an exclusive set of bonus items (to be delivered by the end of Release 139) crafted to let you proudly display your dedication to the Principles… or your embrace of Chaos!

10K COTO Pack Bonus

A majestic set of standing banners: one bearing the emblem of the Principles, the other adorned with the symbol of Chaos. Perfect for framing your grand hall or courtyard.

6K COTO Pack Bonus

A striking pair of wall flags — one for the Principles and one for Chaos — to bring a touch of virtue (or anarchy!) to your castle walls or cozy home.

All banners and flags gently sway in the breeze, adding life and movement to your lot or Player-Owned Town. Whether you choose to honor the Principles, Chaos, or both, these beautifully crafted decorations will let your guests know exactly where your allegiances lie.

These items are part of our Ultra Rare Series; once this promotion ends, they will never be available again.

Every COTO pack purchase not only rewards you with these limited-edition items but also directly supports the continued growth and development of Shroud of the Avatar. In our recent livestreams, we’ve shared deeper insights into the exciting future of the game; be sure to check out this month’s and next month’s Release Notes for more details on what’s to come.

To qualify, the COTOs must be claimed by logging into the game (online) while the special offer is in place, which is through July 11th, the end of the sales and bonuses period for the release.

Proclaim your principles. Embrace the chaos. Celebrate with us!

New Release Deployment Schedule

During last month’s livestream, we shared lots of details about our ongoing efforts to stabilize and modernize our infrastructure as well as our roadmap for the rest of this year, and even dropped a few hints about what’s coming next year.

One important topic we covered was the impact of our current monthly release schedule on development. Every month, the team must pause active work during ‘lockdown’ to publish a release, which limits the time we have to create and refine new content.

To address this, we’re planning to transition to a quarterly major build schedule, while still deploying critical fixes and smaller updates monthly—or more frequently if needed. Here’s what we’re working towards:

Proposed Deployment Schedule

Weekly server maintenance on Mondays (start time TBD)
Minor patch deployments on Mondays, as required
Release deployments on the last Monday of the scheduled release month (currently still every month, with plans to move to quarterly major releases)
Developer Release Livestreams to follow on the Friday after each Release (unless a holiday or other conflict arises)

We’d also like to host occasional weekend livestreams and spontaneous work streams when possible!

Why the Change?

Historically, releases were deployed on Thursdays to get new Alpha/Beta content into players’ hands right before the weekend, maximizing early feedback. While this made sense during early development, it’s riskier in a live production environment, since any major issue rolling into the weekend can’t be quickly addressed.

Industry best practice is to schedule updates and maintenance on lower-traffic days, minimizing disruption and allowing the team to respond to issues quickly. Following this, we’ve officially moved the monthly release deployment event to the last Monday of each month. This is just the first phase of aligning our deployment process with our long-term goals.

Infrastructure & Next Steps

Alongside these scheduling changes, we’re actively working on updating and modernizing hardware and virtualizing servers where possible to improve reliability and scalability. We’ll share more details about these improvements, and what’s next, during our upcoming livestream on July 11th.

Thank you for your support and patience as we refine our release process. Together, we’re building a more stable and efficient foundation for the future of Shroud of the Avatar!

Streaming Bundle Inventory Management

As part of the streaming program, each participating streamer should maintain an inventory of up to 50 bundles to give away to their viewers, in accordance with program rules.

We have been monitoring bundle counts and noticed that some streamers currently hold over 400 bundles on their accounts. Please remember: streamers are not allowed to open the giveaway bundles provided by SotA Staff, they should be giving out bundles when they stream and not retaining more than 50 bundles at any time.

Moving forward, we will be strictly enforcing these rules and will only deliver bundles to qualifying streamers whose accounts are within the allowed limit. We understand that participating streamers may also watch other streams and occasionally win bundles themselves. In such cases, bundles received from other players or streamers must be opened upon delivery.

If a participating streamer’s account holds more than 50 bundles, SotA Staff will not deliver additional bundles until the inventory has been reduced. If you win a bundle, open the bundle!

To keep the system fair and manageable for everyone, if these backlogs are not cleared, we may implement an expiration policy on excess bundles.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in helping keep the streaming program balanced and fun for all!

Release 139 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 139 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R140 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 139!

Play Release 138!

May 29, 2025

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 138 goes live May 30th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 138 (R138), we offer three renovations.

News Announcements

Community Updates

New Britannia Housing Renewal Project

Earlier this month, Scottie and I streamed a developer work session of over five hours on Twitch. This month, we have completed the cleanup of the Wood and Plaster Row House set (2-, 3-, and 4-story models). This model rowhouse is the default house that appears on a row lot and is the basis for a number of other row models.

In addition to fixing all of the known visual issues and stuck spots that have been reported, Scottie found hundreds of polygons and faces that were hidden within walls, taking up extra draw time and GPU memory. He also found thousands of disconnected vertices, which cause the game engine to try to calculate their purpose and draw requirements on the fly during game play.

I have rebuilt the prefabs, organizing the objects and building a proper Level of Detail (LOD) implementation, and optimized the textures to enhance their appearance in game.

We now have a good baseline to work from to create a set of new row houses, while still continuing to repair the existing ones. This is one of our longer projects but, when done, the results will really enhance the game experience. More updates to come in the coming releases!

– Ravalox

Release 138 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 138 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R139 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 138!

Play Release 137!

April 25, 2025

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 137 goes live April 25th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 137 (R137), we offer a warm spring glow.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Birch Island Progress Update

As always, I have been juggling a bunch of hats and keeping the fires to a low simmer while still working to develop new content. Active players and players attending the livestreams or reading our release notes/newsletters are already aware that, even though we aim to add content to the game on a quarterly basis, we have been consistently adding new items, recipes, pets, spawners, and player dungeon rooms and components every month. Last month during our 4.5-hour deep-dive Twitch livestream, I detailed a number of ongoing efforts we have to update graphics, improve performance and move us forward to where we will be on track to deliver more in-depth content. If you haven’t seen the video yet, please check it out on Twitch or on Youtube. There is a ton of great info on house bug fixes, new houses, and dungeon features and bugs being eradicated. Content will continue to be developed and released as we complete new items and features. Major content (like episodic and new areas like Birch Island) will take a bit longer to produce with the team being the size it is currently.

I will be making adjustments to the visuals of Birch Island on the Novia map to align the island more accurately with the appearance of its inspiration. Currently, I have removed the bridge from mainland Novia to the island since I need to change the geometry. Once that is done, players will be free to walk around on the new part of that overworld. Birch Island is, of course, a reference to Oak Island in northeast Canada, specifically the Money Pit, where two men discovered evidence of a shaft in the late 1700’s. The story of Oak Island first interested me in the 1970’s when “In Search Of” did an episode on the story.

In our version, Birch Island, there will be three locations of interest:

The Money Pit itself, based on the demo dungeon Eighth Level of Hell that appeared randomly on the Novia map in December during our anniversary celebrations.
The Nolan Manor, a homestead on the island, where players will be able to go to access merchant services and pick up side quests as well as hear lore and rumors from the NPCs.
The Well, a cave-based dungeon not as large or difficult as the Money Pit, but that will certainly be worth visiting as we intend to bring back some old ‘friends’ that early supporters of SotA will likely recognize.

These dungeons will have interconnections to the Novian underworld and to each other, keeping with the standard ruleset of having adventure dungeons on each continent connect to each other, allowing the player to travel across the map while in the underworld.

The Well will be of modest difficulty but should attract spelunkers of all levels for the new layout and (planned) re-emergence of an old mob type. The Well will likely be the first area opened to players on Birch Island, with the Money Pit following next.

The final area on the island will be the homestead and is planned to allow the player to explore the various points of interest around the island.

I look forward to putting the Well on the QA server soon so players can provide feedback and help squish bugs before we go live with the new content.

– Ravalox

Release 137 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 137 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R138 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 137!

Play Release 136!

March 26, 2025

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 136 goes live March 27th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 136 (R136), we offer rabbit-hunting and/or chaos.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Embrace the Chaos – Limited-Time Ultra-Rare Chaos Sword & Shield!

Spring is a time of renewal and rebirth, but in Shroud of the Avatar, it’s also a time of Chaos! To honor this wild and unpredictable force, we are unveiling two ultra-rare items: the Chaos Sword and the Chaos Shield. These exclusive items were meticulously crafted by none other than Scottie, the legendary artisan of New Britannia. One glance at these weapons of Chaos and you’ll know they embody its essence.

Featuring a mesmerizing rotating Chaos symbol (when equipped), the Chaos Shield is a true spectacle to behold. With intimidating visual effects (when equipped), the Chaos Sword will strike fear into the hearts of your foes. Both pulse even when innocuously placed as deco.

These items are part of our Ultra Rare Series; once this promotion ends, they will never be available again.

How to claim your chaos rewards? From March 27th through April 6th, you can obtain these exclusive items as bonus rewards:

Receive one Chaos Sword for every 10K COTO pack purchased and claimed in-game.

Receive one Chaos Shield for every 6K COTO pack purchased and claimed in-game.

There’s no limit to how many you can earn; each eligible COTO pack grants you another chaos-infused reward! NOTE: To qualify, the COTOs must be claimed by logging into the game (online) while the special offer is in place, which is through April 6th, the end of the sales and bonuses period for the release.

Join the Annual Easter Egg Hunt!

Each year, the Dev Team host our annual Egg Hunt. This year will be our 5th Annual Egg Hunt event in game! Join Laney and the Dev Team for any of the one-hour event windows on Saturday, April 12th in Mount Midir:

We have scheduled the event in such a way as to allow Avatars from all over the world to be able to participate, so grab your jump potions, your collection of Frogkin rings and your Boom Bunny fighting gear and come join in the egg hunting fun!

The Dungeon Project Update

This month we put out a non-spawning version of the player dungeon troll room. This room was suggested by Hemnu Lightbringer because there are few rooms large enough to accommodate the large version of the player-placeable lava pools. The new version is craftable and there is a discoverable recipe (as usual) to convert from the spawning version to non-spawning and vice-versa. The lantern present in the original room has been removed but a deco surface has been added at the top of the rear stalagmite as well as a surface on the rock shelf above. The floor and walls should all be able to accept decorations; in addition, the ceiling has been configured for ceiling decorations. I tested and confirmed that all three lava pool sizes can be placed in various directions and, on a side note with reference to the lava pools, we have noted a significant improvement in their operation since they were all rebuilt. Please continue to report any issues seen with these items in the existing bug thread.

Last month, I intended to release a breakaway wall T-intersection hallway. It was delayed until this month due to some interesting bugs found in the original. I found that the mesh used for the breakaway wall had seven vertices that were not ‘welded’ and occupied the same space as other vertices. This can cause the renderer to go into an infinite loop. It was also discovered that a change was made in 2015 to the texture setup that caused the walls to appear shiny and deformed to look like another type of brick. It is suspected that this was not reported by players since it was an obvious clue as to where the wall section was that could be knocked down. This dungeon piece is currently used in virtually all of the game’s adventure zone dungeons and used to connect the dungeons together to create the continental underworld, so correcting these issues was important.

Now that this piece is available to players, I will be working on the three levels of difficulty I have mentioned in the past. Secret doors, breakaway walls, and similar hidden mechanisms in dungeons should have an easy (novice), standard (intermediate), and hard (expert) version. The existing breakaway wall will likely be considered the intermediate difficulty. Players should see new pieces come out soon with these difficulty variations.

I have been spending a lot of time cleaning up inconsistencies. This month, in addition to releasing these two rooms, I have updated a number of the rooms to correct player placement issues. This includes implementing a standard for where the placement collision goes and rebuilding the ‘crossed hammers’ interactive. As I progress through the entire inventory of rooms already built, functionality should improve.

Laney has been working diligently to populate an internal spreadsheet that will help me work through the issues, missing rooms, and organize new room deployment better going forward. The first visible player dungeon kit-wide change will be a standardization of the dungeon piece (room) naming. Even before this is put in place, I have identified another issue that has been present for some time: many of the dungeon room pieces have duplicate IDs. This may be the cause of certain types of bugs such as hammers not showing or spawns not appearing. Though I can’t say for sure what number of bugs will be corrected when I fix them, I can say that performance should improve.

– Ravalox

Release 136 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 136 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R136 is a polish month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R137 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 136!

Play Release 135!

February 26, 2025

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 135 goes live February 27th at 10:30 AM CST.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 135 (R135), we offer space to stretch your oars.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Keep and Castle Full Water Lots

This month we have added the last two missing lot markers for Player Owned Towns (POTs); a full water keep lot marker and a full water castle deed lot marker. Governors and Stewards who have a POT can now offer a full range of water lot sizes to their residents.

There are two different types of water lots: a standard water lot which must be placed on a valid shoreline and full water lots which are placed entirely in water. When a full water lot marker is placed, it will create a dock with a lot marker on it and will allow for the placing of homes that are intended to be in the water when claimed. These POT full water markers cannot create an island when the lot is claimed.

The full water keep marker will fit in the lake of grasslands and forest 02 biomes. In swamp biomes (aside from out to sea), it will place, but there’s land encroaching on the edges.

The full water castle marker will fit in the lake of forest 01 and snowy mountains biomes. In mountain and underground biomes, it will place, but there’s land encroaching on the edges.

The existing keep and castle lots (that CAN become islands) that are baked into the POT templates with larger bodies of water cannot be removed. Future POT templates will not have the baked-in convertible water lots, to make room for more placement flexibility.

These markers are available in the in-game Crown Store for 30 COTOs each.

Release 135 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 135 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R135 is a polish month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R136 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 135!

Play Release 134!

January 30, 2025

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 134 goes live January 30th at 10:30 AM CST.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 134 (R134), we offer new leaves and more uses for old ones.

News Announcements

Community Updates

More Decorative Plants in More Places

Our existing decorative plants harvested from agriculture are great for placing on ground, but can’t be placed on active planting beds and pots to make it look like they’re growing in them. Active planting beds and pots, on the other hand, can show an array of mature plants, but can’t display immature plants (for long) and can’t be placed on player-owned town land.

Now you can combine them, at least for a few plants to start.

When this project is complete, you’ll be able to use a planting trowel at a carpentry station to place any decorative plant from agriculture (immature or mature) in any planting pot or bed (including the crown store ones) to make a combined deco version. These will take less time to load than active planters, as there’s no more need to calculate the state of an active plant, and they can be placed on player-owned town land.

This release, all nine planting beds and six pots can accept immature and mature apple and banana trees, and we’ll be adding plants (starting with rose bushes) every month until all the plants are useable, including the four new decorative plants added this release (see below.) The recipes are automatically known by all and planting trowels have been added to crafting merchants with the planting pots and beds.

If you change your mind, take the pot or bed back to the carpentry table and salvage it to get the empty planter back.

Have fun playing in the dirt!

Birch Island: A Mysterious New Adventure Awaits

Work continues on the new dungeon previewed during our anniversary event and, with this update, we’ve added Birch Island to the Novia overworld map! Nestled in the far northeast, near South Hulenholt and Rhun, this island remains inaccessible while we finalize our work.

At the heart of Birch Island lies a formidable eight-level dungeon, designed to grow increasingly challenging the deeper you venture. Future expansions will introduce additional areas to explore on the island but, for now, let’s delve into its mysterious past.

The Legend of Birch Island

For centuries, treasure hunters have scoured the far northeast of Novia in search of an incredible fortune rumored to be hidden on Birch Island. Some claim the island is cursed while others believe the treasure will only be unearthed when the last birch tree has withered away.

The tale began many years ago when two brothers, fishing off the coast, spotted strange lights on the island. Curiosity drove them to row ashore where they found no sign of life, only an old tree with a pulley and a deep depression in the ground.

Intrigued, they dug and unearthed an ancient tablet inscribed with a dire warning of a curse. Dismissing it as a trick to deter treasure-seekers, they pressed on, only to break into a hidden dungeon. What they found remains unknown, for neither brother ever returned.

To this day, adventurers continue to brave the island’s dangers, hoping to unravel its dark secrets. Deep within its dungeon, known ominously as the Eighth Level of Hell, a terrifying presence awaits.

Will you be the one to break the curse and claim the treasure? Or will you, like so many before, succumb to the island’s ancient evil?

Release 134 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 134 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R134 is a content month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R135 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 134!

Play Release 133!

December 18, 2024

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 133 goes live December 19th at 10:30 AM CST.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 133 (R133), we offer tricks and traps.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Eleven Years of SotA Development

We are at the end of our eleventh year and that means that we have completed 133 monthly updates to the game. Join us on our stream Friday at 4pm for our last release stream of the year for prizes, updates, prizes, mysterious happenings, adventurer deaths, and prizes!

This release we are offering two special rare items! The first is a Baroque multi-tiered fountain obtained when purchasing a 10K COTO Pack on the website. The other is a Baroque Table Clock obtained when purchasing a 6K COTO Pack.

NOTE: To qualify, the COTOs must be claimed by logging into the game (online) while the special offer is in place, which is through January 2nd, the end of the sales and bonuses period for the release.

COTOs will be on sale during this time, so it’s a really great deal! Please note that the bonus items will be delivered by the end of the release after the offer expires.

Release 133 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 133 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R133 is a polish month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R134 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 133!

Play Release 132!

November 26, 2024

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 132 goes live November 27th at 10:30 AM CST.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 132 (R132), we offer ways to brighten the darkest part of the year.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Season’s Greetings

We are now in the last quarter of the year and quickly approaching Shroud of the Avatar’s 11th anniversary! In the last months of the year, we primarily dedicate ourselves to working on bugs and internal system updates. This month we have been working in earnest to plan the content and itemization for next year.

We have quite a number of items in the fire, including bug fixes, massive amounts of dungeon work, and our continued efforts to map the game so that we can audit it properly. Portalarium produced a ton of content, features, and skills, but not much was documented. We are working on getting things better organized so that we spend less critical time on recurring things like Monthly and Subscriber Login Rewards.

I want to take this moment to thank the team for being so dedicated and going above and beyond every day. Allium and Laney both have expanded their dev knowledge by leaps and bounds. Over the last few months alone, Allium produced almost all of the items we have been presenting to the community; these and the creation tasks that Laney has taken on are lessening the load for myself and are allowing me to work on 2025 plans, player dungeon content, and the more stubborn bugs.

I also want to thank Keith, Scottie, and Devilcult for their dedication and continued support. This is a passion project for everyone who works on the game. We look forward to big things in 2025!

– Ravalox

Livestream Explanation

We have at least one Livestream on our official Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar) each month. During our official streams, we offer a number of ‘prizening’ drawings for in-game items and recently it has been asked how that all works. There will be a prize phrase published with the official release notes. This phrase is to be said in game, using any chat channel (including whispers), on the day of the stream. Aside from that, a purchase on the game’s website will also enter your account for a chance at a prize.

The phrase can be entered into game chat at any time on the date of the stream (starting at midnight Central Time), leading all the way up to about five minutes before each drawing. We typically have at least two drawings per stream. Players do not have to enter a second time for the additional drawings.

Prizes are generally delivered quickly, but since our streams are usually held on a Friday, they may not appear in the player’s in-game inbox until sometime during the next week.

Please remember that only phrases spoken in game qualify as entries into the drawing. We do not track the phrases spoken in Twitch chat or Discord.

I was hoping to stream a few more times this month, but the holiday season is too powerful and I found myself short of time. I will endeavor to try to stream a work session or three each month going forward, but that may need to wait until January, since December’s calendar is already filled to capacity (though you never know when I may just fire up OBS!)

– Ravalox

Release 132 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 132 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R132 is a polish month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R133 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 132!

Play Release 131!

October 30, 2024

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 131 goes live October 31st at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 131 (R131), we offer dark places to brighten or, maybe, to keep dark.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Dungeon Delve

I have started a revamp of the Player Dungeon Kit. Last month, we released a new room and this month we will add seven more! A good number of the existing rooms are named for the adventure scene they were taken from, so as most of the new rooms are basements converted to dungeon rooms, these rooms will have the “Cellar” keyword in their names.

As is our standard, not everything needed to play the game needs to cost money. Of the eight new rooms added in R130 and R131, only three are purchasable through the Crown Store. Recipes and blueprints for some will be obtained in loot and others will be located on in-game-gold merchants. We will continue to develop in this manner going forward.

Two of the new rooms are small pass-through areas or antechambers. These were specifically requested so players could create hallways with niches or vestibules. There are also some significant features to note in these, as well as the other new rooms: hallways stubs are not present for every connection! This will allow players to create a tighter maze of rooms and even create scenarios where the adventurer may not notice moving from one room to another. Players building a dungeon will, of course, need to be mindful of rooms that may clip into other rooms when connecting them. If this happens, then a hallway piece should be placed. I will be looking to create hallway stubs (4 meters long instead of 8 meters or 16 meters) to allow for more flexibility when using these new smaller rooms.

The best is yet to come: we have published a few pieces in this update that contain doors and sub-sections that make the piece into an expanded number of rooms. In the future, I will be looking to add breakaway walls and secret doors et cetera, a popular wishlist item. I will also be converting all of the basements into dungeon rooms including the massive Castle Five-Story Basement!

We are currently working on organizing the inventory of dungeon sets and rooms to determine what pieces are missing and what bugs need to be fixed. This also will allow us to correct any inconsistencies in naming and points.

Scottie has been assisting with making new dungeon components that will allow for more interesting designs. Some of these dungeon kit parts have been used in the new rooms released this month. They allow me to make smaller rooms and to convert other things like basements and adventure dungeons into rooms without rocks poking out all over. My goal is to refine even some of the old rooms that need too much void space.

My intention is to continue to fix and/or add new rooms, leading to a larger release of a new adventure zone dungeon and other goodies! As always, please look for testing directives: these help us test bug fixes on QA as well as test new rooms.

New pieces on Bookseller Merchants:

Stone Dungeon Room – Cellar Antechamber [1 Floor] (2×1) – 2 Conn

Turn the triangles for more pictures.

Stone Dungeon Room – Cellar Antechamber [1 Floor] (3×1) – 2 Conn

Stone Dungeon Room – Row Lot Cellar [1 Floor] (2×1) – 1 Conn

Stone Dungeon Room – Village Lot Cellar [1 Floor] (2×2) – 1 Conn

New pieces in loot:

Stone Dungeon Room – Village Lot Cellar [2 Floor] (2×2) – 4 Conn

New pieces in the Crown Store:

Stone Dungeon Room – City Lot Arena [1 Floor] (4×5) – 3 Conn

Stone Dungeon Room – City Lot Cellar [1 Floor] (4×6) – 4 Conn

– Ravalox

Holiday Season

This release is our last official content release for 2024. However, as the dungeon revamping effort continues, some new dungeon rooms will likely make their way into the next two releases.

We plan to have an extended livestream in December along with a new pop-up dungeon (like the chicken room) for our eleven-year anniversary. December will also be time for the next quarterly special bonus 10K COTO pack item.

We will not be continuing the dubious tradition of the short release schedule in November and December this year. The release date will still need to be shifted by a day or two to avoid Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is an undo strain on a team as small as ours to try to complete the required minimum work needed for a release in such a short time. It is no coincidence that the last two months of the year are for bug fixes and the first content release is at the end of January.

As always, thank you for supporting the game and subscribing. More info to come!

– Ravalox

Release 131 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 131 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R131 is a content month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R132 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 131!